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Mapping world literature : international canonization and transnational literatures

"Mapping World Literature explores the study of literature and literary history in the light of globalization and argues that international canonization of books and authors can be used as an instrument for textual analysis of world literature. Thomsen uses a distinctive method in combining the concept of literary constellations and canonization, which allows for literary analysis that balances the formal and thematic elements of texts with their impact on the international literary scene. This is introduced through an overview of the concept of world literature including a discussion of present critical positions and then a specific analysis of two cases, literature written by migrant writers and the literature of genocide, war and disaster."--Jacket.Read more...

Abstract:

Explores the study of literature and literary history in the light of globalization and argues that international canonization of books and authors can be used as an instrument for textual analysis of world literature. This title also offers a nuanced understanding of the mechanism of canonization in the international sphere.Read more...

Reviews

Editorial reviews

Publisher Synopsis

... wide-ranging and readable, and will undoubtedly be of value as a starting point for scholars interested in the field. Thomsen's underlying thinking is progressive and pragmatic, leading to ideas which highlight the substantial potential of a reconfigured field of world literary studies.--Sanford LakoffRead more...

Review from CHOICE

“One urgent literary debate of the first decade of the 21st century has been that surrounding "world literature": How is it to be defined and constituted? What will be its inevitably changing canon? What modes of interpretation are most appropriate to it? Thomsen (Univ. of Aarhus, Denmark) discusses...Read more...

“One urgent literary debate of the first decade of the 21st century has been that surrounding "world literature": How is it to be defined and constituted? What will be its inevitably changing canon? What modes of interpretation are most appropriate to it? Thomsen (Univ. of Aarhus, Denmark) discusses the "contested paradigms" that structure this debate within various literary disciplines. For example, scholars of comparative literature have been seeking to shed its Eurocentrism and rejuvenate it without turning their backs the achievements of Western writers; those interested in postcolonial literature have had to confront the dilemma of its status as a transnational migrant literature more dependent on the major languages of Europe than on the national literatures of former colonies. Drawing on the work of David Damrosch (What Is World Literature?, 2003), important essays and books by Franco Moretti and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Christopher Prendergast's edited volume Debating World Literature (2004) and informed by changes in media and culture, this volume ingeniously links national and transnational literatures and global culture while assembling a useful list of formal and thematic elements that will lead readers to engage with old and new texts in new constellations and ways. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” – K. Tölölyan, CHOICE, April 2009

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schema:Review ;schema:itemReviewed <http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/182732066> ; # Mapping world literature : international canonization and transnational literaturesschema:reviewBody ""Mapping World Literature explores the study of literature and literary history in the light of globalization and argues that international canonization of books and authors can be used as an instrument for textual analysis of world literature. Thomsen uses a distinctive method in combining the concept of literary constellations and canonization, which allows for literary analysis that balances the formal and thematic elements of texts with their impact on the international literary scene. This is introduced through an overview of the concept of world literature including a discussion of present critical positions and then a specific analysis of two cases, literature written by migrant writers and the literature of genocide, war and disaster."--Jacket." ; .